119 Journal of Research on English and Language Learning is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License eISSN 2721-5016 | pISSN 2721-5024 Journal of Research on English and Language Learning http://riset.unisma.ac.id/index.php/JREALL/article/view/6756 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.33474/j-reall.v1i2.6756 Vol. 1 | No. 2 | Agustus 2020 | Hal. 119-126 Illocutionary speech acts on Donald Trump’s speech in addressing the covid-19 breakout Neni Nurkhamidah STKIP Media Nusantara Citra, Indonesia neni.nurkhamidah@stkipmnc.ac.id *) correspondence: neni.nurkhamidah@stkipmnc.ac.id ABSTRACT This research aims at finding out the illocutionary speech act on one Donald Trump’s speech in addressing the COVID-19 outbreak. The speech is conducted at Oval Office in 11 March 2020. This is a qualitative research that implemented the theory of speech act by Searle (1979). Result shows that Trumps made all five categories of illocutionary speech act with different amount of each category. The most utterances he made is assertive (54%). The type of assertive in his speech is boasting, claiming, describing, informing, and stating. The next category is commissive (29%) that consist of promising, and planning. In directive categories (15%) the utterance he made is commanding and advising. And Expressive (1%) consist of thanking and the last is declarative (1%) can be seen from his utterance when he blessed the audiences. Keywords: speech act; illocutionary; speech; Donald Trump INTRODUCTION In the late of 2019 a mysterious disease firstly emerged in Wuhan, China. This disease quickly spread in the whole part of world and recognized as coronavirus disease OR COVID 19. As the spread of this disease is worldwide level, WHO confirm that this disease is pandemic which means that the transmission happens among people in huge number of countries and causing death. In the beginning of May, more than 200 thousand people death as it is reported by WHO. The situation getting worse since the number of cases is increasing every day. Covid 19 cases happens in all continents. Education, tourism, transportation, industry, trade and many other sectors are affected. School and college are conducted in distance utilizing e-learning, micro industry can run no more and companies force some employees to work from home even worse the fire their worker. No wonder that this situation really shakes national condition. Many country leaders respond to this situation in a presidential speech to state their condition and their strategies to deal with this pandemic. As it is also did by US President, Donald Trumps on his presidential speech in addressing the outbreak of COVID-19 in his country. A speech conducted by a President Trump is not ordinary since it takes attention not only for Americans’ society but also the whole world (Arisetiyani and Yuliasry, 2017). No wonder that language choice he used has vital role. The language used in a speech determine the success of communication with the audiences since language express speaker feeling, idea and desire (Mutmainnah and Sutopo, 2016). When people communicate using language in particular situation, they will produce utterances. Utterance is a unit of speech analysis can be defined in various ways depends on the context of communication. Speakers that utter a sentence do not merely stating speech. There must be a meaning conveyed and purpose such as to warn, command, inform, refuse, ensure and other meaning. This intention is called a speech act. Speech act is under the pragmatic study that interpret meaning in particular context Yule (1996). Study about pragmatic is beneficial for people that involve in communication to understand what meaning implied in utterance that speakers’ make so that the message can be received as its purpose. Introduced by J. L. Austin in 1960, speech acts is to what is done when something is said (Toolan, 1997) action that performed by utterance Yule (1996:47) and implicit meaning of a speaker’s utterance http://riset.unisma.ac.id/index.php/JREALL/user http://riset.unisma.ac.id/index.php/JREALL/user http://riset.unisma.ac.id/index.php/JREALL/article/view/6756 http://dx.doi.org/10.33474/j-reall.v1i2.6756 mailto:neni.nurkhamidah@stkipmnc.ac.id mailto:neni.nurkhamidah@stkipmnc.ac.id Nurkhamidah, N. 120 Journal of Research on English and Language Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (Listya and Novitasari, 2015). Cruse (2004) classified speech act into three different classes the locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary. Locutionary is the basis of the utterance (what speakers say). Illocutionary is the intended meaning or purpose of what speakers say. Meanwhile perlocutionary is the effect of what speakers say. The effect may be upon of the addressee thoughts, feelings, or actions. This research is conducted based on illocutionary aspect that deal with sentence to perform a function. The communication intention of illocutionary act consist of greeting, asking, ordering, suggesting, requesting, informing and advising (Searle in Ramadhani, , Indrayani, and Soemantri, 2019). Some researchers classify speech acts into some categories. Searle (1979) mentioned that there are five categories of speech act; assertive (represents a speaker’s belief about truth) , directives (gets the addressee to do something), commissive ( gets speaker to do future action) , expressive ( expresses speaker’s belief or a sincere wish about some condition or situation) and declaratives (brings into existence belief to which it refers. baptize or excommunicate. Searle (1979) categorized the example action that referred to taxonomy of speech act. The Assertive speech act is the action that intend to assert, predict and insist. The next is directives that include direct, order and entreat. Commissive speech act is commit, promise and threaten. Expressive include apologize, thank and praise. The last is declarative. Blessing, firing and baptizing are the example of declarative. Smith (1991) developed Searle’s theory by categorized actions that refer to five types of speech act. Assertive speech acts are producing by speakers when they try to claim, assure, argue, inform, conjecture and swear. Commissive speech act is the act of promise, consenting and refusing. When speakers request, tell, require and permit, directive speech acts take part in this form of talk. The research on speech act keeps developed by some scholars. To emphasize and simplify the type of illocutionary speech act, Yule (1996) represent five speech acts classification based on Searle’s theory in this following table: TABLE 1. Searle’s Speech Act Classification No Type of Speech Act Function Intention S = Speaker; X = Situation 1 Declarative to get someone else to do something words change the world S causes X 2 Assertive to represent speakers’ believe words fit the world S believes X 3 Expressive to state what speakers’ feels words fit the world S feels X 4 Directive to get someone to do something world fit words S wants X 5 Commissive to express what speakers’ intend world fit words S intends X This research tries to find out the illocutionary speech act on one Donald Trump’s speech in addressing the COVID-19 outbreak based on Searle’s theory (1979). Researches on president Trump’s speech is challenging, no wonder there are huge amount researches on President Trump’s speech have been conducted. In 2017 phycologists from University of Texas and Princeton University released that Trump has high score on language but the substance is lower than George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Mufiah (2018) conducted a speech act analysis of Trump’s speech. He found that illocutionary speech act dominates his speech is representative (46%), directive (16%) and expressive (11%). Jimmi and Sidauruk (2019) on a study about Trump’s speech on banning All Refugees and Citizens of 7 Majority Muslim Countries Entering U.S found that 10 data of locutionary, 10 illocutionary and 2 perlocutionary speech act were produced by Trump oh his speech. A speech from Barrack Obama was analyzed by Wardhono, A., & Hadi, M. (2017). It was a speech on the conflict in Syria and looming federal government shutdown. It is concluded that no declarative utterance was found. The speech is dominated with assertive (representative), the following utterances are commissive, directive, and then expressive. http://riset.unisma.ac.id/index.php/JREALL/user Illocutionary speech acts on Donald Trump’s speech in adressing the covid-19 breakout 121 Journal of Research on English and Language Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License METHODS As this research attempt to find out the pattern of illocutionary speech act on one Donald Trump’s speech, qualitative method is employed. This method is appropriate to use to obtain specific information about opinions, behaviors, and social contexts of populations (Mack, 2005). Qualitative method does not attempt to control the contextual factors yet to understand things from the informants’ points of view and create pictures of a phenomena under investigation. In qualitative research, the data can be in the form of words, sentences or pictures. The data in this research was taken from a speech conducted by President Trump at Oval Office, in 11 March 2020. The speech was delivered to announce the action has taken, is being taken and will be taken by USA government to address COVID 19 especially suspending all travel between the U.S. and Europe. In analyzing data, there are some steps were conducted. 1) Identify illocutionary speech at based on theory proposed by Searle (1979). The categories are divided into 5 categories; assertive, directives, commissive, expressive, and declaratives, 2) analyze the data based on the type of illocutionary speech act, 3) categorize the data 4) summarize the results of the whole analysis. RESULT AND DISCUSSIONS The video and transcript of President Trump’s speech can be seen in this following link https://www.cpr.org/2020/03/11/transcript-video-president-donald-trump-addresses-the-nation- on-the-coronavirus-pandemic/. Based on the speech transcript, 73 utterances are made by Trump. The speech act pattern of his speech is summarized in this following chart: PICTURE 1. The Pattern OD Illocutionary Speech Act on Trumps ‘Speech Chart shows that Presidents Trumps speech is dominated with assertive illocutionary (54%). The type of his utterance is boasting, claiming, describing, informing, and stating. The category is followed by commissive (29%) consist of promising and planning. In directive categories (15%) the utterance he made is commanding and advising. Expressive (1%) consist thanking and the las declarative (1%) can be seen from his utterance in blessing the audience. This part will discuss every illocutionary speech act category in President Trump’s speech in addressing the outbreak of COVID 19. Assertive Illocutionary Assertive illocutionary shown from Trump’s utterance which can be true or false. Some assertive illocutionary he made occurred in this following type: 1. Boasting 54% 29% 1% 15% 1% The Pattern of Illucotionary Speech Act in President Trumps' Speech Assertive Commisive Declarative Directive Expressive http://riset.unisma.ac.id/index.php/JREALL/user https://www.cpr.org/2020/03/11/transcript-video-president-donald-trump-addresses-the-nation-on-the-coronavirus-pandemic/ https://www.cpr.org/2020/03/11/transcript-video-president-donald-trump-addresses-the-nation-on-the-coronavirus-pandemic/ Nurkhamidah, N. 122 Journal of Research on English and Language Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License In his speech Trump boasted several times. Most of his boasting emphasize on the strength of his country especially in economics and health care sectors. COVID 19 breakout will not affect the American’s economic as they have greatest economic in the world. They also have talented doctors, scientists to overcome the breakout. This following transcriptions show how Trump boast in his speech. Our team is the best anywhere in the world Every community faces different risks and it is critical for you to follow the guidelines of your local officials who are working closely with our federal health experts — and they are the best. Because of the economic policies that we have put into place over the last three years, we have the greatest economy anywhere in the world, by far. Our banks and financial institutions are fully capitalized and incredibly strong. Our unemployment is at a historic low. We have the best economy, the most advanced healthcare, and the most talented doctors, scientists, and researchers anywhere in the world. As history has proven time and time again, Americans always rise to the challenge and overcome adversity. Our future remains brighter than anyone can imagine. 2. Claiming Only one utterance of claiming was made by Trump. As it is show in the transcription, he claimed that the fight against the COVID under his govern is the comprehensive effort during modern history This is the most aggressive and comprehensive effort to confront a foreign virus in modern history 3. Describing Two utterances of describing were made. The first utterance describes the exemption of travel banning. The second describes the criteria of citizen impacted by the virus that may receive financial support from government. There will be exemptions for Americans who have undergone appropriate screenings, and these prohibitions will not only apply to the tremendous amount of trade and cargo, but various other things as we get approval. This will be targeted for workers who are ill, quarantined, or caring for others due to coronavirus. 4. Informing In his speech Trump tried to give many information to the addressee. Most information he shared is about what the governments have done and now they are doing dealing with the outbreak. Today, the World Health Organization officially announced that this is a global pandemic. We have been in frequent contact with our allies, and we are marshaling the full power of the federal government and the private sector to protect the American people. The European Union failed to take the same precautions and restrict travel from China and other hotspots As a result, a large number of new clusters in the United States were seeded by travelers from Europe The new rules will go into effect Friday at midnight. These restrictions will be adjusted subject to conditions on the ground. Anything coming from Europe to the United States is what we are discussing. We are cutting massive amounts of red tape to make antiviral therapies available in record time. http://riset.unisma.ac.id/index.php/JREALL/user Illocutionary speech acts on Donald Trump’s speech in adressing the covid-19 breakout 123 Journal of Research on English and Language Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License These treatments will significantly reduce the impact and reach of the virus. Additionally, last week, I signed into law an $8.3 billion funding bill to help CDC and other government agencies fight the virus and support vaccines, treatments, and distribution of medical supplies The vast majority of Americans: The risk is very, very low. The highest risk is for elderly population with underlying health conditions My administration is coordinating directly with communities with the largest outbreaks, and we have issued guidance on school closures, social distancing, and reducing large gatherings. Each of us has a role to play in defeating this virus. These low-interest loans will help small businesses overcome temporary economic disruptions caused by the virus. This action will provide more than $200 billion of additional liquidity to the economy. At the same time, we are monitoring the situation in China and in South Korea. From the beginning of time, nations and people have faced unforeseen challenges, including large-scale and very dangerous health threats And taking early intense action, we have seen dramatically fewer cases of the virus in the United States than are now present in Europe. Earlier this week, I met with the leaders of health insurance industry who have agreed to waive all copayments for coronavirus treatments, extend insurance coverage to these treatments, and to prevent surprise medical billing 5. Stating Trump state that American are at the critical time to fight COVID 19, he also stated that his country moves faster than China in preparing the fight and this action will not delay. We are at a critical time in the fight against the virus We made a lifesaving move with early action on China We will not delay. Commissive This speech act commits a speaker to some future intentional action. Commissive speech acts of Trump’s speech are shown in following types: 1. Promising In his speech Trump promised that government can handle any threat come by COVID-19 breakout. He promised that rapid test, economic loan, financial relief, will be provide for citizen. Government also stressed that they will always be together with the citizen with greet speed respond and professionalism. Testing and testing capabilities are expanding rapidly, day by day. We are moving very quickly. Young and healthy people can expect to recover fully and quickly if they should get the virus. This is not a financial crisis, this is just a temporary moment of time that we will overcome together as a nation and as a world. Effective immediately, the SBA will begin providing economic loans in affected states and territories This vast economic prosperity gives us flexibility, reserves, and resources to handle any threat that comes our way. This is the way it always was and always will be It only matters how you respond, and we are responding with great speed and professionalism. I will be asking Congress to take legislative action to extend this relief. http://riset.unisma.ac.id/index.php/JREALL/user Nurkhamidah, N. 124 Journal of Research on English and Language Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License I will never hesitate to take any necessary steps to protect the lives, health, and safety of the American people I will always put the wellbeing of America first. No nation is more prepared or more resilient than the United States. We are all in this together. They will consider this very strongly. Acting with compassion and love, we will heal the sick, care for those in need, help our fellow citizens, and emerge from this challenge stronger and more unified than ever before I am confident that by counting and continuing to take these tough measures, we will significantly reduce the threat to our citizens, and we will ultimately and expeditiously defeat this virus. To ensure that working Americans impacted by the virus can stay home without fear of financial hardship, I will soon be taking emergency action, which is unprecedented, to provide financial relief. 2. Planning There are various plans mentioned by Trump in his speech. As it is mention in the transcript the travel bans from Europe to unite States will be implemented with reevaluate the banning as the situation improve. The additional fund is increased, and tax payment policy are also planned. After consulting with our top government health professionals, I have decided to take several strong but necessary actions to protect the health and well-being of all Americans To keep new cases from entering our shores, we will be suspending all travel from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days. These restrictions will also not apply to the United Kingdom. And, as their situation improves, we will reevaluate the restrictions and warnings that are currently in place for a possible early opening. To this end, I am asking Congress to increase funding for this program by an additional $50 billion. Using emergency authority, I will be instructing the Treasury Department to defer tax payments, without interest or penalties, for certain individuals and businesses negatively impacted. Declarative One declarative speech act is made. In his speech Trumps blessed the audience as it is written in the transcript. God bless you, and God bless America Directive When speaker make utterance to get addressee to do something, it is called as directive speech act. In his speech, Trumps made two types of directive speech act, advice and command. 1. Advising Some advising are given by trump for nursing for visit the elderly. For Americans in general, he advised them to avoid unnecessary travel, take extra precaution to the virus by washing hand, cover the face and stay home. In particular, we are strongly advising that nursing homes for the elderly suspend all medically unnecessary visits. In general, older Americans should also avoid nonessential travel in crowded areas. For all Americans, it is essential that everyone take extra precautions and practice good hygiene Wash your hands, clean often-used surfaces, cover your face and mouth if you sneeze or cough, and most of all, if you are sick or not feeling well, stay home. http://riset.unisma.ac.id/index.php/JREALL/user Illocutionary speech acts on Donald Trump’s speech in adressing the covid-19 breakout 125 Journal of Research on English and Language Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License 2. Commanding Commanding is one step higher than advising in the term of requirement. In his speech Trump uttered four commanding utterances as it is written in this transcription. The elderly population must be very, very careful. However, to provide extra support for American workers, families, and businesses, tonight I am announcing the following additional actions: I am instructing the Small Business Administration to exercise available authority to provide capital and liquidity to firms affected by the coronavirus. Now we must take the same action with Europe Finally, I am calling on Congress to provide Americans with immediate payroll tax relief. We must put politics aside, stop the partisanship, and unify together as one nation and one family. Expressive Expressive illocutionary speech act can be seen when speaker express his or her feeling of psychological attitude. One expressive speech act is found in Trump’s speech when he thanked to audience in the end of his speech. Thank you. CONCLUSION When President Donald Trump conducted a speech in addressing the outbreak of COVID-19 in the beginning of March 2020, he made five type of illocutionary speech acts as it is proposed by Searle (1979). 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